Variable-speed conveyer.



C. A. JUENGST.

VARIABLE SPEED CONVEYER.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

IN V 5 IV TOR Charles J] Jaenyst ATTORNEY C. A. JUENGST.

VARIABLE SPE-ED CONVEYER. APPLICATION FILED OCT. I8, 1916.

Patented July 9, 1918.

a nvjmtoz Czar/es .flJaenysf rrn SAES CHARLES A. JOENGST, OF CROTON FALLS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN ASSEMBLING MACHINE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

VARIABLE-SPEED CONVEYER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July e, 1918.

Application filed October 18, 1916. Serial No. 126,294;

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. JunNGs'r, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Croton Falls, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Variable-Speed Conveyers, of which the followin is a specification.

This invention re ates to conveying appa ratus and is particularly designed for use as a delivery mechanism for book covering machines.

In the prior art of bookbinding, book succession and at substantially regular intervals. A delivery mechanism that has been employed for conveying books away from the point of discharge to the place where they are packed or stacked consists of an endless carrier provided with blades or leaves spaced apart a distance substantially equal to the thickness of the books being operated upon. It will be seen that the books are thereby held by the delivery mechanism in the same vertical position in which they are received from the machine. It will also be seen that if the delivery mechanism were arranged to receive and deliver comparatively thin books, it would not be suflicient merely to increase the space between the book supporting blades. If this alone were done without increasin the speed of the delivery mechanism, the oks would not be removed from the machine with sufficient rapidity to make way for succeeding thick books which, because of the constant speed of operation of the machine conveyer, would be discharged from the machine at the same rate at which thin books would be discharged. On the other hand, if

- of travel of the delivery conveyer.

The main object of this. invention is to provide a delivery mechanism the speed of operation of which may be varied to meet the requirements in handling books of various thicknesses.

The invention consists principally in a delivery conveyerv in which the distances between the upright spacing members thereon for the reception and support of books in anupright position are variable to accommodate books of difi'erent thicknesses, the number of the spacing members also being variable; and in means for so varying the speed of operation of the delivery conveyer that an upright spacing member will be presented, at the delivery point of a book conveyer, at intervals corresponding to the intervals at which books are released by said book conveyer.

Other features of the invention will be referred to as the description proceeds.

In the drawings, in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated, like reference characters are used to designate like parts. v

Figure 1.is a side elevation of" a device embodying the invention and showing its relation to a book covering machine.

Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section taken through the conveyer along the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of-a part of the delivery mechanism taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 and showing the change speed gearing. I i

Fig. 4 is a side view of the bearing end of the delivery conveyer showing the change speedgearing.

In the particular embodiment of the invention chosen for illustration there is shown a book conveyer arranged to serve as a delivery mechanism for a book covering machine of the type in which a horizontally traveling conveyer carries, from one operating mechanism to another, the books, successively, in a vertical position with their backs lowermost, and finally deposits the covered book at the delivery apparatus. The usual method for carrying the books by the covering machine conveyer is to provide clamps which are ordinarlly opened, by the action of stationary cams carried by the frame-Work of the machine, to discharge the books. The delivery mechanism employed is of the endless carrier type and operates to convey the books away from the machine in adirection transverse turn mounted on the framework. 4. The

conveyer is made up of blades 5 which project outwardly from links 6 and serve to support the books as they are fed from the book covering machine in a vertical position until they are carried to the point where they are finally delivered. The book covering machine 7 is provided with a con veyer shown in cross section at 8 which in turn is provided with book carrying clamps 9 having movable jaws 10 adapted to be controlled by cams 11 fixed to the framework of the machine. such relation to the delivery mechanism that each book clamp as it arrives over the receiving end of conveyer 1 .is opened and the book carried thereby dropped into place on the conveyer.

' For the purpose of properly receiving the books, an inclined plate 12 forming a guiding member is so arranged that the book is received thereon and directed into a position resting on one of the links'of the conveyer. This plate or guide member 12 is rovided at its central portion with an openmg 13 through which the blades 5 of the conveyer pass, as they move upwardly to book engaging position. It will be seen that the blades as they pass through the guide plate 12 will engage the book'resting against the guide plate and carry it forwardly as the conveying blades continue their movement to the outer end of the conveyer.

In order to properly valine the books as they are carried by the conveyer, a jogging member 14 is mounted on an arm 15 pivoted to rock about a point 16 on the framework of the conveyer. The member 14 is adapted to engage an end of the books as they are being carried by-the conveyer and jog them into alinement. In order to rock the joggin member 14 about a pivot 16, a drive shat 17 is provided with a crank 19 directly connected to the arm 15 through a link 20. The shaft 1 7 may be driven in any suitable manner from a shaft 36, as by means of an The cam 11 bears intermeshing gear, not shown,- carried by the shaft. On the shaft 36 is mounted a bevel gear 18 meshing with a corresponding gear 37 on a stub shaft 38. A gear 39 fixed to a shaft 38 meshes with a gear 40 on the main drive shaft 41 of the book covering machine and power is thus conveyed from the drive shaft 41 through gears 40 and 39 and bevel gears, 37 and 18 to shaft 36 from whence it is, in turn, delivered to shaft 17 and through crank 19 and link 20 to arm 15. The jogging member is thereby intermit tently operated to jog thebooks into alinement. The jogging member 14 may be adjusted in the end of arm 15 by means of a screw 21 in order to adapt the plate to register books of di-flerent size.

The conveyer 1 is driven continuously from sprocket 22 mounted on drive shaft 41 of the book covering machine. A sprocket chain 23 serves to convey motion from sprocket 22 to a sprocket 24 mounted on a stub shaft 25 carried by the framework of the conveyer. The shaft 25 carries a pinion 26 meshing with a pinion 27 carried by the main driving shaft 28 of the conveyer mechanism. A second shaft 29 carried in the conveyer framework 4 carries the sprockets 2 which serve to directly drive conveyer 1. A

gear 30 loosely mounted on shaft 29, but

adapted to be locked thereto, meshes with pinion 27 and forms a driving connection which ma be made use of to convey power from driving shaft 28 to the driven shaft 29.

A second gear 31 rigidly carried by driving shaft 28 meshes with a gear 32 also loosely mounted on shaft 29 and having.

means to lock the pinion to the shaft to form a second driving connection between driv ing shaft 28 and the driven shaft 29. The two sets of gears 27 and 30 and 31 and 32 are given difi'erent ear ratios so that shaft 29 may be driven om driving pinion 26 at a gear ratio of, for instance, 1 to 4 in one case and of 1 to 8 in the other. These gear ratios may, of course, be altered in accordance with the different requirements of different grades of work.

In order to lock one or the other of gears 30 or 32 to shaft 29 looking screw holes 33 and 34 are provided. A flange 35 is permanently keyed to shaft 29 and forms a bearing 43 for gear 32. The locking screw hole 34 in flange 35 and gear 32 to thereby lock gear 32 to flange and shaft 29. It will be seen that when this arrangement is made, shaft 29 will be driven through gear 32 and pinion 31 on the drive shaft 28. When either of gears 30 or 32 is locked to shaft 29, it will be apparent that the remaining gear is free to rotate thereon.

It is believed that the operation of the device will be clear from the above description. It will be seen, that when thick books are being fed from book clamps 10 at the same rate that thin books are fed, it becomes necessary to drive the conveyer at a faster speed in order to move the thicker books out of the way as the following ones are dropped into place in the conveyer. To

make the speed of the conveyer conform to books of different size, it is preferred to provide interchangeable conveyer chains having blades spaced at different distances apart. For instance, a conveyer having blades provided on every link may be used for thin books and a conveyer having blades mounted only on alternate links for delivering books of larger size. The blades, obviously, may be of different lengths to correspond with the difi'erent sizes of the books,

if found to be desirable.

It will be seen that a book delivering conveyer has been provided, the speed of which can be changed to accord with books of different size delivered to it by a book covering machine operating at a constant speed.

The feature of having a' longitudinal book conveyer with a downwardly opening clamp to support a book in upright position together with means for causing the clamp to release the book into an inclined chute below the clamp andan endless delivery conveyer adjacent to the chute and moving transversely of the longitudinal conveyer provided with upstanding leaves that pass through an opening in the chute and assume an inclined position during the passage of the book from one conveyer to the other and to maintain it in an upright position is not claimed in this application but forms the subject-matter of and is claimed in a com-' panion application Ser. No. 855,646, filed August 7, 1914.

What is claimed is:- A book co'vering'machine delivery mechanism comprising; a horizontally extending book conveyer carrying books in an upright position, means causing said book conveyer to release books, regardless ofthickness, at

regular intervals at a delivery point, a delivery conveyer, below the book conveyer, extending horizontally away from said delivery point, means afiording a variable number of variably spaced upstanding CHARLES A. JUENGST. 

